1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to refrigerated display systems, and more particularly to a portable, refrigerated, point-of-use display positionable on a shelf or other elevated support surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Refrigerated display cases have long been utilized in supermarkets, butcher shops, and the like to cool and display food products and beverages for sale to consumers. Display cabinets of this type typically have an elongated hollow configuration within which the food products are contained and are occasionally enclosed by one or more sliding window panels that extend forwardly and downwardly from a top of the cabinet. Displays of this type, however, are designed to be free-standing and may be from four to eight feet wide and approximately three feet deep. As will be readily appreciated, such displays are also quite heavy and require special floor layout accommodations to ensure consumer access without substantially interfering with foot traffic to other areas of the store. As such, this type of display is generally placed at the outer boundaries of a shopping area, i.e., proximate a wall, etc.
In an effort to influence consumers standing in line at the check-out counter to make a "last-minute" purchasing decision, smaller refrigerated display cabinets designed to be positioned near the check-out lines have also been utilized. Such cabinets typically occupy a two foot by two foot area. Thus, although the smaller cabinet design occupies substantially less space than the elongated configurations discussed above, they are still large enough to interfere with foot traffic. As such, displays of this type can only be placed where space permits and often necessitate substantial floor layout modifications to avoid obstructing foot traffic through the store.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,138 issued Jan. 5, 1971 to Davis discloses a "REFRIGERATED DISPLAY UNIT", which is an auxiliary display case mounted in front of and against the front case wall of a conventional or existing refrigerated grocery case. A U-shaped conduit is fitted over the back wall of the auxiliary case and the front wall of the existing case and is provided with some type of pump for moving cool air from the front portion of the existing case into the rear portion of the auxiliary case. While the display unit disclosed by Davis is physically small enough to fit on a shelf, in practice, it cannot be so positioned because it requires an external supply of refrigerated air and is peculiarly adapted for mounting on an existing grocery case. It therefore suffers from the same placement limitations as the other cases discussed above.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerated display which can be positioned on any shelf and which can thus be moved to any desired location in a retail environment without necessitating the extensive floor layout modifications characteristic of prior art refrigerated displays.